You know by now what Marquette is under Shaka Smart.
Smart’s made his living off of great defenses that force opposing teams into mistakes or bad shots with relentless defensive pressure, capitalizing off of it on the other end of the court while wearing down its opponents over time.
That sort of team showed up on Sunday at the United Center. The problem was the group at the other end of the court was much better at it.
When this game was announced as Indiana’s second of the 2025-26 season there was some
level of concern that the Hoosiers wouldn’t have the team chemistry to keep up with a group like the Golden Eagles quite yet. That was entirely understandable, Indiana is a brand new team with very few players who’ve seen minutes together on a college basketball court. But this blowout is just something else.
A team like Marquette should’ve been able to feast off of a group coming off of its first official game as a team. Instead, the Hoosiers dined on the Eagles to the tune of 50% shooting from the field and a 14/28 performance from beyond the arc.
Indiana didn’t just survive the Marquette pressure, the Hoosiers thrived. They finished with 27 assists to just eight turnovers on the game. Marquette, on the other hand? Just 10 assists and 15 turnovers. It was the Hoosiers’ defensive pressure that forced mistakes (and got them into A Lot of foul trouble) throughout the game.
Which, touching on the foul trouble, it was remarkable that Indiana wasn’t able to just stay in the game, but stretch the lead despite the vast majority of its rotation getting into foul trouble early. The Hoosiers had to rotate between Reed Bailey and Sam Alexis at center, with each holding his own against the Eagles’ frontcourt, and Conor Enright picking up enough fouls to leave the game.
When Marquette’s runs came, Indiana always had an answer. That was usually one of Tucker DeVries, who finished with 27 points on 6/9 shooting from deep or Lamar Wilkerson, who finished with 23 on 6/10 from long range.
Indiana just kept finding answers while Marquette struggled to find one. Facing Indiana’s relentless backcourt and stout post defense, The Eagles shot just 37.3% from the field.
Marquette has a game, Indiana just played it better. It’s a great sign for a program looking to emerge from years in the wilderness. New head coach Darian DeVries seems to have things going in the right direction.
